In the Glow of a Star
by maramouse
Summary: Scenes before, after, and during "Princess and the Frog," highlighting Tiana's key encounters with the evening star throughout her life.


The little girl squirms in bed as her parents exit her room. She is well aware of the truth of her parents' words about hard work being necessary to achieve dreams, yet she also cannot forget Charlotte's. If just a single wish on the evening star could achieve her dreams-why, perhaps she can get everything she ever wanted!

Quick as a cat, the little girl leaps out of bed and tiptoes to the windowsill. She pulls the curtains open to reveal the gleaming evening star. Scrunching her eyes shut and murmuring, "Please, please, please," under her breath, the little girl concentrates on every single thing her little heart desires. She holds her breath as she opens her eyes, not sure whether she dares to believe that her wish could be granted.

But it is not a large, blue bedroom that she sees-a bedroom which rivals Lottie's in size. Instead, it is a bright green, croaking frog.

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Tiana's mother closes the book and smiles at the girls. Tiana is still gagging about the princess kissing the frog. She loves the story as much as Charlotte does, but sometimes she wishes Charlotte would pick something else for her mother to read for a change.

"Well, it's best we be going now. Charlotte, I have your dress hung in your closet. Tiana, your daddy's gonna start to worry."

For a moment, Lottie's face scrunches as those she is about to cry, but then her blue eyes widen in excitement. "Miss Eudora," she says, with a surprising amount of politeness for such a normally spoiled little girl, "may Tia spend the night?"

Tiana's heart skips a beat. "Please, Mama!"

Hesitating, her mother looks over the two girls. "Well, I don't know. We didn't bring any of your things."

"Don't worry about that, Eudora," says a head, peeking in, and Tiana is startled to see Mr. La Bouff emerging. "I'll be darned if my daughter doesn't have enough clothes to lend some out for one night."

Charlotte brightens. "You can wear the blue nightdress your mama made me! She'd be beautiful, right, Big Daddy?"

Eudora smiles at the eager pair. "Well, I suppose that would be all right."

That night, Tiana and Charlotte lay in Lottie's room; Charlotte in her bed and Tiana on the trundle. Tiana is dressed in the frilled blue nightgown Charlotte mentioned, while Lottie is dressed in a pink white gown trimmed with white ribbon. Both are exhausted from their attempts to read each other from Lottie's collection of fairytales.

The evening star gleams through the otherwise dark room. "Lottie," says Tiana hesitantly, "do you think it really works?"

Charlotte giggles. "Why, sure it does! I wish on it that Big Daddy will buy me a new one of your mama's dresses every night."

"My daddy told me that nothing comes true without hard work."

Lottie scrunches her nose. "I guess that's true. My daddy does work hard on his sugar mill, and he has everything." Her eyes widen. "I just thought of something! Oh, Tia, how about the two of us make a wish together?"

"But what would we wish for?" asks Tiana, thinking about the differences between Charlotte's and her dreams.

"I don't know. Think!" She speaks again before Tiana can answer. "I know! How about that no matter what happens, the two of us will always be best friends?"

"But I don't know if that can happen," Tiana reminds her friend. "You're gonna go away to be a princess, and I'm gonna stay here and help run Daddy's and my restaurant."

"With the help of the evening star, anything is possible," says Charlotte with authority. "Besides, you can always come with me and have a restaurant there. Please, Tia? Please, please, please?"

"Okay," says Tiana, beginning to smile. "Let's wish then."

Squealing, Charlotte takes Tiana's hand and pulls her out of bed.

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It has been a hard day at school. Georgia and Tiana have gotten into a fight because of Tiana's decision to stay indoors at break to study instead of playing jump rope, and Georgia ignores Tiana for the rest of the day. When Tiana runs into Charlotte, coming home from the local private school, Charlotte is surrounded by a herd of friends and does not even acknowledge her.

Tiana swallows hard as she tells her father's picture goodnight. She usually wishes for her daddy's and her restaurant, but tonight, she senses that her wish should take a deeper turn.

Tiana creeps up to the window sill. "Please, please, please," she tells the evening star, "let Daddy be all right."

A few days letter, the news comes, anyway.

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Tiana feels a rush of shame as she looks out at the evening star over the La Bouff's costume ball. The last time she did was when she was eleven and wished for her father, and she knows very well how that turned out.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she mutters before wishing.

The frog is not the only surprise that comes that night.

Later that night, as Naveen snores from his perch on the other side of the tree trunk, Tiana catches a glimpse of the evening star from the hole in the tree trunk. She makes an effort not to seek a better view, not wanting to risk that the alligators are still waiting. Still, she cannot help feeling a surge of comfort at the same evening star that was always out when she was human.

Her instinct is to wish for the same restaurant that she will have to rely on Naveen's help to pay for. But a strange surge stops her, and she begins to reconsider something else. I wish, she thinks to herself, that I had some clue just what it is I'm still missin' from life.

Tiana sighs and looks down, studying her newly webbed toes . Naveen snores, still fast asleep.

"What are you doing?" Naveen asks, unable to keep the whine out of his voice. Tiana has to bite back a laugh at the expression on her new husband's face.

"Just wait a moment. I want to say hello to someone."

Naveen follows her to the windowsill, where two stars gleam brightly. "Evening, Ray, Evangeline," Tiana whispers. "Bet you would have been mighty pleased if you saw Naveen and me today."

"Yes, we are both sorry you could not be there," Naveen says. He turns back to Tiana and appraises her. "Now, Tiana. You already made us wait until after our second wedding-are you going to make me wait any longer?"

"Just a minute, Naveen," says Tiana, motioning to the curtains, which are still open. "Something tells me that Ray and Evangeline might not want to see this."

Naveen yanks the curtains shut as he silences Tiana by kissing her.

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The little girl snuggles against her parents after the story is finished. She is so tired that she can barely keep her eyes open, but two pins of bright light keep her eyes from closing.

"What's that, Mama, Daddy?" she asks, pointing.

Her parents turn to each other and smile. "That's Ray and Evangeline," says Tiana. "We named you after her. If you wish on these stars and work hard towards your dream, you can have everything you've ever wished for."

"Unless of course you are me," says Naveen, smirking. "I, of course, already have everything I could ever wish for."

Tiana swats him, but the little girl's big brown eyes are still focused on the two evening stars gleaming outside. She points to the stars. Tiana, surprised, does not hesitate in picking her up and setting her down, so that her daughter is sitting on the window ledge. Naveen follows.

"Go ahead and make a wish, sweetheart," says Tiana softly, watching her little girl eye the stars. "You never know. It might just come true sooner than you think."

Both Naveen and Tiana find one of their daughter's hands and give it a squeeze. As the little girl closes her eyes, Ray and Evangeline shine even brighter.


End file.
